FAKE HEROIN EYED IN OD SPIKE

A powerful synthetic drug linked to hundreds of deaths across the
country has been sold on local streets by drug dealers as heroin and
could be linked to a rash of overdoses, investigators say.

The state lab told Brockton police recently that what they thought
was heroin seized from a drug dealer last summer was actually
fentanyl, a pain killer 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine.

It was the first concrete evidence given to Brockton police that
fentanyl was being sold in the city as heroin, said Sgt. Kevin
O'Connell, head of the Brockton narcotics unit.

"It was pure fentanyl," O'Connell said.

Investigators have not been able to link the fentanyl sold as heroin
to any recent overdose deaths, O'Connell said.

"We feel this is related to a lot of the ODs, but we have not been
able to connect it directly yet," he said.

An examination of death certificates in 26 cities and towns in The
Enterprise area found there were 13 deaths tied to fentanyl between
Jan. 1, 2004, and Aug. 31, 2006. It was not known if in any of those
cases the victims thought they were using heroin.

In at least one case, a 24-year-old Raynham man died after chewing a
time-release fentanyl patch to get high.

Nationally, there were 8,000 emergency room visits due to overdoses
of fentanyl or fentanyl combined with another drug in 2004.

Authorities have been on the lookout for the drug locally for nearly a year.

"We have had rumors from people -- and from various addicts that we
interview -- that there have been certain individuals selling real
strong stuff. We have been trying to learn if it was fentanyl,"
O'Connell said. "This is the first confirmation we have had."

Hanover Police Chief Paul Hayes said there could be more fentanyl on
the street but investigators aren't getting test results back soon enough.

"We are pretty sure some of the drug overdose deaths are fentanyl but
the toxicology reports are not coming back quick enough," said Hayes,
a member of the Governor's Advisory Council on Alcoholism and Narcotic Abuse.

The last toxicology report of an overdose death was from early 2006,
making it difficult to link deaths to the drug, he said.

"We still don't know what we are dealing with," Hayes said.

The drugs seized by Brockton narcotics detectives was the second
fentanyl seizure in the area.

Hanover police seized what was purported to be heroin from two people
running a drug delivery service last summer and later learned it was
fentanyl, Hayes said.

Joanne Peterson, founder of Learn to Cope (learn2cope.org), a support
group for families of opiate addicts, said the finding came as no surprise.

"Our group has our own tally and we have counted 13 (deaths) between
Norfolk, Bristol and Plymouth County since October and two of them
were 18 years old and most in their twenties. In my opinion, whether
it's pure fentanyl or pure heroin, our youth is at more risk than
people realize and something has to be done about this," she said.
"Either drug is toxic and deadly and we need to get to the source on
how it's so prevalent and where it's coming from."

Peterson said action needs to be taken now to stop heroin use.

"If we had a rash of deaths from peanut butter, it would be off the
shelves immediately, and that is acting upon a risk. Why isn't anyone
acting upon this deadly epidemic? Why aren't we getting warnings out
to parents? These kids are getting younger and if there is a risk out
there people need to hear about it," she said.

The test results Brockton police recently received from the state
were of drugs seized from a dealer in a shopping mall parking lot last summer.

O'Connell said the suspect was seen selling the drugs to two Hanover
residents, a 19-year-old woman and a 20-year-old man.

"They get this stuff and they think it is real good heroin when in
actuality it is fentanyl," O'Connell said.

Fentanyl is darker than heroin normally sold on the street, he said.

Fentanyl, first created in Belgium in the late 1950s and about 80
times more potent than morphine, began being used in the 1960s by
doctors as an anesthetic.

It is now used both as an anesthetic and a highly potent pain
reliever. One brand of fentanyl by Actiq is used for pain relief for
cancer patients.

Drug dealers are also making fentanyl in clandestine labs in Mexico
and elsewhere, then mixing it with heroin.

More than 100 deaths have been reported in the country among drug
addicts who overdosed on heroin mixed with fentanyl.

That prompted the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration last May to issue an alert to substance abuse
treatment and prevention professionals about the deadly combination
of fentanyl and heroin or cocaine. The agency said the drug
combination was believed to be tied to clusters of drug deaths and
non-fatal overdoses across the country.

In just one week in May, an estimated 33 people in Detroit died,
according to the agency.